Terps Basketball: Weekly Report December 6th

Another week, same number in the L column — zero. The Terps are 8-0 and have moved up to No. 13 in the latest AP Poll after trouncing Louisville on the road and opening up conference play with a win over Illinois at home last week.

This week does not include a home game. Maryland will travel to Madison, Wisconsin, to play the Badgers on Tuesday, and the Terps meet No. 7 Tennessee on a neutral court on Sunday. The latter will be played at the Barclays Center in New York.

Neither game will be easy, but Kevin Willards squad doesn’t appear to be backing down to anyone this season. Taking on a gritty mentality, the Terps are playing basketball the right way and playing it hard. Ball movement, cutting without the ball, and tough defense have all become calling cards of this team, which has yielded excellent results so far.

Now that they aren’t flying under anyone’s radar, can the Terps keep it up? That and several other questions should be answered this week.

Will the backcourt stay hot from deep?

Starting guards Jahmir Young and Hakim Hart combined to shoot 9-for-15 from beyond the arc in the win over Illinois. Hart was an unconscious 5-for-6 from deep. Will that keep up, especially against two really good defensive teams this week? Wisconsin and Tennessee are No. 23 and No. 1 in adjusted defensive efficiency, respectively. So open shots will be hard to come by. But when you’re hot, you’re hot. We’ll see if the tougher defenses cool the Maryland guards off or if their shooting can continue to propel the Terps’ offense.

Is Julian Reese a liability at the foul line?

Something has happened to Reese from the charity stripe this year. Last season, as a freshman, he shot 41-for-51 (80.4%) from the foul line. So far this season, he’s 21-for-40 (52.5%). Not sure what went wrong, but his stroke is atrocious right now. He’s too important to Maryland at both ends of the floor to be a liability at the line. He needs to find the form he was in last year in that respect so Willard can confidently keep him on the floor at the end of games.

How deep are the Terps?

It makes sense that the bench would be a little deeper in early season, non-conference games, but Willard really shortened the bench against Illinois, which has been Maryland’s most competitive game of the season so far. Conversely, in a blowout over Louisville the game prior, Willard played 13 players. He only played eight against Illinois and one of them, Jahair Long, only played seven minutes. I think that game gave us more of a glimpse as to what Maryland’s rotation will be than all the games leading up to it, but it’s a bit concerning that Willard sees the depth as being that thin at this point in the season.

What to expect from Wisconsin?

The Badgers are 6-2 with two respectable losses. The first coming against the defending national champion Kansas Jayhawks and then a few days later to Wake Forest. They’re coming off of an overtime road win against Marquette, so confidence will likely be high as the Badgers return to Madison, which is never an easy place to play.

Like many Wisconsin teams of the past, this year’s squad is defensive oriented, ranking 23rd, per KenPom, as opposed to 91st on offense. Head coach Greg Gard always gets his guys to play hard and typically gets the most out of his roster.

Senior forward Tyler Wahl leads the team in points (14.5) and rebounds (7.1) per game and he will be a test for Maryland’s frontcourt. Guards Chucky Hepburn (12.5 ppg) and Connor Essegian (10.3 ppg) are also averaging double figures and help the Badgers score the few points they need to squeak out wins thanks to their stout defense. Junior center Steven Crowl is a 7-footer that Gard has to his disposal. He’s having a very solid year so far, averaging 9.3 points and 6.8 rebounds in 31.3 minutes per game.

Look for the Badgers to get the ball to the hot hand on offense as they attempt to slow the pace of the game down to a grinding halt.

What to expect from Tennessee?

The Vols might be ranked only No. 7 in the AP Poll, but they’re KenPom’s No. 3 team overall and No. 1 team defensively. They do have one loss already to a sneaky-good Colorado team, but Rick Barnes’ team has been crushing opponents since.

Led by five double-digit scorers, and another that’s averaging 9.5 points per game, Tennessee is one of the deepest and well-rounded teams in the country and it has showed in the Vols’ last six games. Since the loss to Colorado, Tennessee is 6-0 with an average margin of victory of 28 points. That includes a 14-point win over Kansas and a seven point win over USC.

Will the Vols have their leading scorer Santiago Vescovi for this one? After playin in the first seven games of the season, he missed Tennessee’s last outing because of a shoulder strain and is currently being classified as day-to-day. The Vols will play Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday before their meeting with the Terps, so it could provide another good opportunity for Vescovi to rest up. If he plays, you know he’s more than good to go on Sunday.

Besides Vescovi, Maryland also has to be cognizant of Julian Phillips (11.8 ppg), Olivier Nkamhoua (10.9 ppg), Tyreke Key (10.8 ppg), Josiah-Jordan James (10.8 ppg), and Zakai Zeigler (9.5 ppg) in this matchup. All are dangerous in their own right and all play tough defense.